Russian hacker arrested in Maldives jailed for 27 years

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Roman Seleznev, the Russian hacker arrested while attempting to leave the Maldives back in 2014 has been convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

He was convicted by the Seattle Federal District Court for hacking the Retail Point of Sales Systems across the United States and installing malicious software into the system and stealing millions of credit card numbers. The US Justice Department has previously alleged that he had stolen the credit card information of 500 US businesses and 3700 financial institutions.

Seleznev was arrested while boarding a plane after clearing Maldivian immigration after finishing his holidays in the Maldives. Members of the US Secret Service intercepted Seleznev and had him board a different plane which took him to Guam, an island located in the Pacific Ocean. Seleznev was arrested on the fifth of July 2014. Russia had criticized the arrest of Seleznev, calling it a 'kidnapping'.

Roman Seleznev is the son of Valery Seleznev, a member on the Russian Federation Parliament and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The elder Seleznev has highly criticized the US arrest of his son.